1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device, for example, a display of a television receiver, computer, or the like, for displaying information of characters, images, etc., and a message board for displaying characters. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a hermetic container arranged in the display device and a method for manufacturing the hermetic container.
2. Description of the Related Art
Examples of known conventional flat-panel display devices include surface conduction electron emission display devices (hereafter referred to as SEDs) disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-251801, U.S. Pat. No. 6,114,804, and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 09-045266, and a field emission display device (hereafter referred to as an FED) disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 05-114372.
FIG. 8 shows a perspective view of an FED 101. This FED will be briefly described with reference to the drawing.
The FED 101 is provided with a hermetic container as a display portion for displaying information, for example, images. As shown in FIG. 8, this hermetic container has a low-profile flat-panel configuration in which insulation layers 111 and 112 are held between a front panel 106 provided with a power supply conductive layer 108 as an anode and a back panel 107 provided with cathodes 109 as electron-emission members, and are sealed. This hermetic container is sealed while being in the condition that inside air has been sucked out using an exhaust pipe (not shown in the drawing) communicated to a suction pump (also not shown) and, therefore, has a vacuum structure.
The hermetic container is provided with a hole portion 116 containing by insertion a fluorescent screen potential feeding terminal 114 having an elastomer 115 at the tip in the back panel 107 in order to apply a voltage to the power supply conductive layer 108. A terminal lead-out portion 117 arranged on a base end side of the fluorescent screen potential feeding terminal 114 contained in the hole portion 116 by insertion is drawn out of the hole portion 116 and, in addition, this hole portion 116 and the terminal lead-out portion 117 are hermetically covered with a sealing material 118, so that the hermetic container is sealed.
Regarding the FED 101 including the hermetic container configured as described above, electrons are emitted from the cathodes 109 by applying a voltage between the power supply conductive layer 108 and the cathodes 109. In the FED 101, emitted electrons allow a fluorescent screen 120 to emit light so as to form pixels, and images are displayed on the front panel 106.
As described above, the hermetic container arranged in the conventional display device has to be sealed by covering the hole portion, the terminal lead-out portion of the fluorescent screen potential feeding terminal, and the like, with the sealing member, such as, for example, a sealing material, in order to maintain the inside of the container in a vacuum condition.